Marking Dalit History Month, we revisit an episode of Himal’s Southasia Review of Books podcast from April 2025, where associate editor Shwetha Srikanthan speaks with the renowned public intellectual, scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde about his new book, Iconoclast: A Reflective Biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar (Penguin India October 2024).
As a towering figure of the 20th century, B R Ambedkar came to symbolise the struggle for the annihilation of caste and the emancipation of Dalits. His life is often made to stand in for that history.
In contemporary India, his iconisation has moved beyond popular reverence, becoming a resource for political appropriation across the spectrum, folded into projects of Hindu nationalist myth-making. In his new book, Anand Teltumbde argues that it is more important than ever to return to Ambedkar on his own terms – as a self-described “iconoclast”, a breaker of icons.
Teltumbde’s reflective biography traces the radical core of Ambedkar’s thought and action across his social, political and intellectual life, while cautioning against the dangers of sanctification. Instead, it invites readers to interrogate the past and take responsibility for the present. Ambedkar’s greatness, Teltumbde suggests, lies not in deification but in his relentless challenge to the social order – in standing with the most oppressed, confronting power from within, and reshaping the course of Dalit lives.